The Premier League have acknowledged a \u201csignificant\u201d VAR error in the build-up to Erling Haaland\u2019s winner in the Manchester derby, but the admission brings no practical comfort to Michael Carrick or his side.<\/p>\n
The goal stood after officials decided not to focus on Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s involvement, a call that left Carrick and Lisandro Mart\u00ednez frustrated. Their argument was straightforward: Haaland was left free in the box only because he had been drawn away to deal with Fern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n
Before a meeting with representatives from all 20 clubs, the league issued a letter that, according to The Times, accepted a serious mistake had been made. It described early-season officiating as being overshadowed by a major VAR failure in the match between Manchester United and Manchester City on Sunday, Sept. 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite a positive start, early season officiating performance has been overshadowed by a significant VAR error in the Manchester United vs. Manchester City match on Sunday, Sept. 13,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe VAR did not recognize an offside offense by Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez and incorrectly overturned the original decision of offside to allow the goal to stand. Pro Ref are undertaking a full review of the incident, which will be reviewed by the Premier League, with learnings being adopted immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
For United, the acknowledgement may at least offer honesty, but it does nothing to alter the outcome of a match that will remain defined by the controversy around the winning goal.<\/p>\n
The more meaningful consequences are expected to emerge behind the scenes, particularly in how VAR operates during matches.<\/p>\n
Comparable incidents are rare because they tend not to involve clear rule misreadings. One of the closest examples came in September 2023, when Liverpool had a goal wrongly disallowed in a 2\u20131 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.<\/p>\n
Luis D\u00edaz was incorrectly flagged for offside after scoring, even though a VAR review showed he was onside. A communication breakdown meant the VAR official believed the goal had initially been allowed, and the mistake led to the goal being ruled out.<\/p>\n
That case prompted major process changes, with VAR officials instructed to confirm the final verdict of their reviews alongside updated communication guidelines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Premier League admitted a major VAR error in the derby, but the result remains unchanged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,172],"tags":[1836,59],"class_list":["post-20190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}